As You Are
by captainrogers
Summary: Noelle, twin sister of Elena Gilbert, has a habit of befriending everyone that seems to come after her sister. Her best friends happen to be Rebekah, Klaus, and Elijah Mikaelson. Then there was Kol, who seemed utterly fascinated by her. He was the wildest of the Mikaelson's, and she was the most loving of the Gilbert's. And although everyone was against it, even Kol, she loved him.
1. Chapter 1

**Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story! It** **'** **s greatly appreciated! I** **'** **ve always loved Kol Mikaelson as a character and I hate that they killed him off in the series (hint hint** **—** **it won** **'** **t be happening in this story) and although Daniel Sharman portrays him so great, I love Nathaniel Buzolic as Kol. Anyways, send me some love if you wish, I love hearing feedback! xoxo**

 _things are beautiful if you love them_

You would think that for a girl who has seen so much death in her life, she would try her best to steer clear of it in every way possible. Apparently I have proved that theory absolutely and utterly wrong…a countless amount of times, at that. I became friends with Damon when he first came to town, despite all protest which came from basically every one; I have helped keep Katherine alive on multiple occasions - she's a good friend when you get to know her, I promise; Elijah and I are, as I like to call us, besties, although he doesn't care for the word choice; and Klaus and I are BFFs - very different from besties. Stefan and I were even still close when his emotions got shut off and he turned ripper again. All of this has come with the consequence of the people I care about killing dozens of other people. And I have to learn to be ok with it, otherwise I would've lost my mind years ago.

And you would think I would've learned my lesson by now: stop making friends with evil people. But no, it's as if it were some sort of calling I have. Truth be told, I'm exceedingly empathetic, I run on feeling emotion; in fact, I have no idea how vampires can just flip their switches, I wouldn't be able to function, I wouldn't be…well, me. If I wasn't able to feel, I might as well be dead. But vampires are technically dead, so I guess it does make sense after all. Truly though, I just hate seeing lonely people. And that's what they all are, Klaus, Elijah, Damon, Katherine, Stefan: they were all lonely. I like to think that maybe they wouldn't be so bad if someone would just showed them some love and gave them some attention. So, no matter what my other friends say and no matter what my twin (fraternal) sister Elena tries to tell me, I will continue to stand up for them, no matter their faults, because people can be just as good as they can be bad.

Maybe that's why I'm currently finding myself walking over to the new blonde girl sitting by herself under the willow tree at lunch. I know none of my friends like her, she's kind of a bitch, but let's face it, what girl isn't slightly bitchy? I felt bad: no one should be forced to sit alone just because they haven't made the best first impression. She loved her brother, of course she would stand by him. I would do the same thing for Stefan or Damon, even if we weren't blood related, they were still like my brothers. I would do the same thing for Jeremy, my real brother. And although Elena was getting on my everlasting nerves lately, she's still my sister, and I would do the exact same for her. So, no, I didn't blame Rebekah Mikaelson for siding with her family. And it was that thought process that led me to where I am now. Standing right in front of the sitting blonde, who looked surprised and shy, despite her usual confident demeanor.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

Now other people probably would've thought she was coming off as bitchy, but I knew the truth. She was keeping her guard up, and of course she would, she was having a shitty first day. She probably thought it was easy to make friends, after all she was hot as hell - I'm not afraid to admit it - and she didn't necessarily have a bad personality compared to a lot of the girls here. But that's not enough in high school, she's a newbie, cliques were already formed, and it seemed as though none were willing to take pity on her. Except me.

I motioned to the ground next to her. "Is this seat taken?"

It was only for a second, but I caught her small giggle and smile. "No…not it's not taken."

"Awesome." I smiled and plopped myself down. "I'm Noelle Gilbert. And you're Rebekah Mikaelson, Klaus has mentioned you before. It's nice to finally meet you."

"You know my brother?" Rebekah questioned. "I'm so sorry."

That made me laughed, which surprised her. I guess she wasn't used to making people laugh. That made me feel even worse. One thousand years of life, and this poor girl has no idea what it's like to have a friend. I was officially a woman on a mission: I was going to be the best friend I could to Rebekah; after all, everyone deserves to have at least one best friend in their life, no matter how long or short that life may be.

"How are you liking your first day?" I asked her.

"You mean hating?" She made me laugh again, and this time that made her smile. "No one seems to care for new people I guess."

I shrugged. "Trust me, this town makes itself out to be a lot better than it actually is."

And that was the beginning of everything. Rebekah and I talked our way through lunch, not even touching our foods. In fact, we hadn't even noticed so much time had passed until the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch hour. I helped her to her feet - even though she didn't need it, which just made her laugh again - and we made our way into the school building.

"Thank you," she said softly. "For sitting with me. It probably didn't do much good to your reputation."

"Oh, I can guarantee you, I absolutely do not give a shit about reputations." I weaved my arms into hers as we continued down the crowded halls. "Hey, do you want to hang out after school, I really wanted to go shopping at this new store they just opened at the mall."

I had no clue if she knew what a mall was or not considering she'd been locked in a box for decades, but she definitely knew what shopping was because her face lit up as soon as the word slipped out of my mouth.

"I would love to! I obviously am in desperate need of new clothing-" Another bell cut her off.

"That's the warning bell," I explained. "Well, if you want to, then we can leave right after school! I mean Elena wanted me home to discuss some new plan that probably has to do with trying to get rid of your brother but I don't really care so, I'll meet you here, at my locker, and then we can leave."

"You're going to ditch your sister to hang out with me? Someone you only just met not an hour ago? Me? The vampire who has most likely tried to kill multiple people you love? Sister of the one and only insanely arrogant hybrid?"

"Let the record show that I actually am friends with said brother." I pointed out. "And as for ditching my sister…I really really _really_ don't mind."

Her smile turned sly and she gave me a small nudge. "I like you even more than before. And that says something because I don't like many people, especially humans!"

For some reason, that made me laugh. "I like you too Bekah."

—

And thus a new friendship was born, alliances were made, siblings became rivals - including Elena and I when she daggered Bekah and basically turned her back on Stefan. I love Damon, but it is well known that Stefan is my favorite Salvatore. He's just too perfect, and I completely believe that if Elena hadn't dated him, I would've. But alas, I would never date a person that has already dated my sibling, cough cough Damon. They may not be together yet, but give it some time.

I have found out, however, that Bekah is awake once again. Took long enough, I had gone on a mad search for her when I found out, I was even mad at Stefan - something that doesn't happen very often, or actually ever I think.

I had talked to Bekah on the phone the night before I got back into town from visiting New Orleans for my birthday. It was kind of a surprise to myself since I was mad at my sister and the Salvatore brothers. So, because I was feeling rebellious, and because I knew it would piss of Elena to no end, I asked Klaus about his favorite place he's visited in the U.S. and he was so excited he even bought my plane ticket. He was actually going to come with me, but then he had some shit to deal with, so I was on my own. I didn't mind really. Although, I did miss the Mikaelson ball, and my dawg Elijah was also undaggered while I was away.

Needless to say, the first thing I did when I got back to Mystic Falls was drove straight to the Mikaelson manor. I didn't even bother knocking, Elijah, Klaus, and Bekah don't care. There was some older looking lady standing there that I didn't recognize.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" She asked. Her british accent hinted to me that she was most likely related to the rest of the Mikaelsons.

"Gilbert. Noelle Gilbert." Yes, I totally just pulled a James Bond. "And you are?"

"I'm Esther Mikaelson." She introduced herself.

"Ohhhhh Esther…right." I pretended to know who she was. "I've heard so much about you."

"Oh really?"

"No, not at all. But it's nice to meet you." I tried to walk away from her but she kept talking. If there's one thing I hate, it's when people can't take a hint.

"Do you always just barge into people's houses as if you own them."

I rolled my eyes before looking back at her. "Well, my best friends live here, so yeah pretty much." I continued to walk to the living room where I heard voices while Esther followed me.

"Who are-"

Before she could say anything else I'd caught sight of the oldest Mikaelson brother. "LIJAH!" I screamed and ran into his arms, wrapping my legs around his waist. Obviously, he was used to this and knew it was coming because I'm almost positive I do this at least once a week - not counting when they were daggered.

"Elijah, my son, who is this?" Esther asked but was ignored.

His low chuckle rang through my ears. "How are you Elle?" Him and his other two siblings were the only three that called me either Elle or Ellie. "I see you've missed me."

"Missed you!?" I exclaimed. "That would be an understatement! I missed the hell out of you!" He gave me one last squeeze before setting me down, but he didn't unwrap his arms from around me.

"Alright Elijah, stop hogging her." Niklaus's voice made me spin around and practically throw myself at him too.

"New Orleans was _beyond_ amazing!" I told him. "I'll tell you all about it later, I got you guys presents. Speaking of, where's my bitch?!"

A slight gasp could be heard from behind all of us from Esther, who was still trying to gain our attention. Again she was interrupted when Bekah walked into the living room.

"Well, well, well, there's our girl." A man, who I hadn't noticed before, stood up and greeted Bekah. She gave him an annoyed look but it fell off her face when she saw me. She smiled and tried to get around him but he blocked her every step.

"Get out of my way Kol."

 _Kol._ I thought. _Another attractive Mikaelson brother. This is getting to be ridiculous, they can_ _'_ _t all be this hot._

"Out all night, what a scandal," Kol smirked. "I trust you did better than that commoner. Matt, was it?"

"You hooked up with Matt?!" I yelled at her.

"I'll be right with you Ellie." She smiled at me and the glared at Kol. "If you don't shut your mouth the next thing to come out of it will be your teeth."

Bekah pushed past her brother and vampire speed ran to me, knocking me to the ground with her. "Oh I'm so happy to see you!"

"I have so much gossip to catch you up on, but first thing's first." We sat up and I smacked her on the shoulder.

"Ow!" She laughed, obviously not really being hurt by it.

"You hooked up with Matt?! Matt Donovan?!"

"No, try less blonde sweetheart type and more dark haired bad boy type." She sighed.

"OH MY GOD!" I fell back and laid flat on the ground. "WHY IN THE HELL WOULD YOU EVER DO THAT?!"

"It was in the heat of the moment!" She defended herself.

I giggled. "How was it?"

"I'll give you the details later but lets just say exactly how you think it would be." She winked at me. Her brothers all let out disgusted groans.

"Does Elena know?"

Bekah smirked, knowing I was currently doing all I could to piss of Elena. "She caught me leaving this morning."

"YES!" I highfived my best friend and stood back up, helping her get up also.

We just stared at each other for a while and then squealed and hugged each other. Niklaus, making fun of us, imitated our squeals and hugged me also.

Out of no where, Kol did the same thing Klaus did and even though I didn't know him at all I hugged the living daylights out of the kid. He was really hot and I liked the rest of his family so I'm sure I'd like him just fine also. I think he was sort of surprised that I hugged him because it took him a second to actually hug back. And then he just didn't let go.

"Ok, hello," Esther called out to her family. "Who is this girl?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for all the wonderful reviews. I had chapter 2 already written out, so I decided to just go ahead and publish it! Hope you like it! Next chapter starts more of the progression into Koelle (yep, I came up with my own ship name). Until then, enjoy! xoxo**

 _whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect_

"Mother, this is our friend Noelle Gilbert." Elijah introduced me. "She's Elena Gilbert's twin sister."

"You're the Gilbert girl's sister?" Kol asked. My head was still on his chest, since he was so much taller than me and we were still hugging. Not that I'm complaining.

"Yeah, but obviously she's the better twin." Niklaus said and Rebekah nodded in agreement while Elijah chuckled. As bad as it sounds, I was really happy to hear that and see that they all agreed. All my life, Elena was the older, cooler twin. Everyone loved _Elena_ , even my parents favored her slightly more. It wasn't that she was prettier or anything because despite being fraternal twins, we still looked similar, my hair was wavier and longer, and my face rounder, and I was a tiny bit shorter, but I would say we were both on the same level of attractiveness. The point is, Elena got most of the attention when she was younger, and she still does now, and I know she doesn't mean to, but it gets to be really annoying sometimes. "More attractive, smarter, funnier, better hair-"

I laughed at the last one Bekah had said. As you can see, there is a reason I love being here more than my own house.

"Oh, I got you guys presents from New Orleans! They're in my purse." Kol finally let go of me so that I could get out their gifts. I pulled out three bags and threw them at each of the vampires. "Oh…" I looked at Esther and Kol. "Sorry, I had no clue either of you were gonna be…you know…awake or whatever."

"You should be sorry I'm very insulted." Kol smirked.

"I don't mind sweetheart." Esther told me. Not that I really cared, but she creeped me out, so her calling me sweetheart just made me really uncomfortable. She gave me a bad vibe, and that was coming from the girl who hangs out with original vampires.

Esther walked out of the room to do whatever old vampire mommies do just as everyone, except Kol, took out their gifts.

"Well now I feel bad." I pouted. I hated being left out of things, which happened a lot - Elena likes to keep things from me "to protect me" - so I hated when other people were left out. _I could give him something I got for myself._ I thought. I looked down at the beaded bracelet I had bought from one of the street venders. "Oh! Here, you can have this." I took it off and put it on his wrist.

"Oh," He seem genuinely surprised. "Thank you darling." He played with the beads and I tilted my head a little. _Maybe he_ _'_ _s not used to gifts?_

"Oh my god!" Rebekah yelled. She held a sterling silver ring made up of intricate wave designs. "I absolutely love it!"

Elijah laughed as he pulled out a purple, gold, and green striped tie. "I can honestly say, I don't have one quite like this." Everyone laughed as he replaced the tie he was wearing with the one I got him.

"Ok, I couldn't pass that up." I giggled.

"You got us friendship necklaces?" Klaus let out a girlish giggle. "What the hell?! I'm a damn original hybrid and you want me to wear a friendship necklace shaped into half a heart?!"

"Obviously Klaus, how else would we solidify our friendship?" I said seriously.

"Can I at least have the part that says 'best'?" He asked.

"No."

"What?! Why?"

"Because I bought them. And I'm the best. I deserve it."

Klaus just stared at me. "Yeah but it's my gift, so I should get to choose."

"True." I shrugged. "Fine, but let the record show, I'm the best of us two."

"Debatable."

"Not really." Elijah and Bekah both mumbled. I burst out laughing at that.

They all thanked me again for the gifts and asked if I wanted to go to lunch somewhere with all of them. Honestly, I wanted to, but I needed to get back home. Elena was already gonna be mad enough at me, and I wanted to take a nap before I had to face the music. So, I said goodbye to the four originals and drove home. I happened to get Elena and Jeremy something from New Orleans also - along with Damon and Stefan - so I decided to leave them out on the kitchen table so that Elena would immediately see it when she got home. Maybe that would cool her anger down some, because I was _definitely_ not in the mood to deal with her yelling today.

Originally, I had planned to unpack and then take my nap, but a nap sounded much more appealing at the moment.

—

"What made you think it would be okay to just hop on a flight to New Orleans without telling anyone?! And on top of that, you didn't answer any of my calls or my texts the entire time you were gone! I had to keep track of you through Damon of all people!" Elena screamed at me. I groaned. She'd been at it for over twenty minutes now. My gift obviously hadn't done anything for her anger.

"I'm sorry _mom_ , I was in desperate need of a vacation. Unlike you, I happen to enjoy life outside of this lame town."

Elena huffed, trying to calm herself. "You could've talked to me."

"Sorry, you seemed a little preoccupied with your vampire boyfriends."

"That's not fair Noelle." She crossed her arms. "You can't use that against me."

"And you can't keep bossing me around like your in charge of me!" I yelled. Before I could say anything uncalled for I stopped myself and took a deep breath. "Look, I'm sorry ok. Yeah, I should've told you what I was doing and I should've talked to you while I was away. But in my defense, I needed to get away for a while, I was beginning to feel trapped, you know I can't stand being confined to this town for so long, it gets to be a little much. And I'm sorry about bringing up your complicated vampire love triangle, I know its a serious issue for you right now."

"Don't be like that Noelle. I hate what I'm doing to them, you know that better than anyone." Elena grasped one of my hands between the two of hers. "Next time you need to get away, just give me some forewarning."

"Ok," I sighed. "As long as you give me some forewarning next time you're gonna dagger one of my best friends."

"Noelle!"

"What?! It's true!" I tried to keep a serious face but I couldn't. I cracked and let out a small giggle, which made my twin do the same. She hugged me and I hugged her back.

"I'm glad you're home now." She whispered to me.

"As much as I hate this town, I'm glad I'm home too."

If you haven't noticed, I'm terrible at holding grudges. One little 'I'm sorry' and I almost immediately forgive the person. When Stefan went all ripper we had a little incident. He attacked me and almost bled me dry. Luckily, Damon stopped him and I'm fine, obviously. Stefan felt really bad despite having little to no emotion and apologized. I forgave him within seconds. I actually forgave him before he even apologized; it was Stefan, the guy I absolutely idolized, what else would you expect?

"You should call Caroline, she missed you a lot." Elena told me.

"I will." I smiled.

—

I was in the middle of a nice relaxing bath when I got a call from my favorite brother.

"Stefan!" I exclaimed. "I'm so happy to hear from you! I think I missed you the most while away." I admit, I was a little overly flirty with my sister's boyfriend, but it was only jokingly. I loved Stefan like a brother, like I said before, he's actually kind of my role model. I just think it's funny to mess with Elena by acting like I do with him.

His laugh rang across the line. "I'm glad you're back No, also Damon wants to 'screw you'."

"I said to tell her 'screw you' not 'I want to screw you'!" I heard Damon yell at Stefan. I laughed at their antics, they were great entertainment as you can see.

"Damon I'm already committed to Stef, I can't go against that." _That would be the other twin,_ I wanted to add. I knew he could hear me with his super vampire hearing and what not.

Stefan repeated my message to which Damon just scoffed at. "As much as I missed you and I'd love to catch up, I have some bad news."

"I literally just got back into town, what the hell could possibly be going on?" I groaned.

"Well," Stefan started. He then explained to me some deal Esther and Elena had made - I don't even want to start on that and how pissed I became - and then went into detail about how Elijah was threatening Elena's life, saying that Bekah was gonna kill her if they didn't find a way to unlink all the Mikaelson's from one another.

Let me get one thing straight, I was absolutely worried about my sister, but her death wasn't set in stone. As of right now, my best friends lives were, so I was gonna do everything I could to find a way to keep them from being killed.

"Where are you guys?" I sighed.

"Our house."

"Where are the Mikaelson's?"

"Probably somewhere in the forest trying to stop their mother from trying to kill them- wait, No, stop thinking what you're thinking, stop right now." Damon yelled into the phone.

"What do you mean?" I asked innocently. "I wouldn't be able to find them anyways Damon, chill out."

"Hey, don't tell me to chill out ok No, we know you better than even your own family. If you even think about putting yourself in danger to help th-" I hung up in the middle of Damon's lecture. I know, rude right. But I don't like being lectured.

Searching the forest shouldn't be too hard, right?

—

I may be the most idiotic person in the world to think this would be easy. I would never admit that out loud, but I had to be honest with myself right now. I'd been walking around the woods for hours…ok it was actually maybe 40 minutes, but still.

"If you've come to plead for your life…sorry…you've waisted your time." I heard those words come from somewhere and squinted my eyes to see light seeping through the bushes in front of me. I walked around them to find most of the original family, Esther and some other dude in the middle of some star circle thing made of salt - obviously it was salt, haven't you seen Supernatural - and the golden trio, otherwise known as the Mikaelson brothers, standing outside of it.

"Noelle." Elijah was the first to spot me. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, looking for you guys, duh." I was on the other side of the circle. "I've been walking around these stupid woods for almost an hour, my feet hurt, I'm hungry, I forgot my headphones, and Damon is beating me at WordsWithFriends. My night just keeps getting shittier and shittier."

"Who are you?" The random dude in the circle with Esther asked.

"Noelle, obviously, did you miss the part where Elijah just said my name?" I rolled my eyes, really not in the mood for this bullshit. "Who the fuck are you?" I heard Kol and Klaus chuckle at my question.

"Finn Mikaelson, our brother." Klaus introduced him.

I burst out laughing. "No really, who is he?"

"He's telling the truth Elle." Elijah assured me.

My eyebrows pulled together. "You're mother and brother are trying to kill you? Why?"

"They have lived too long and caused too much damage. I can not let it go on any longer." Esther explained. "Their time has come to an end."

"And mother of the year goes to…" I waved my hand toward Esther and then looked at Finn. "And what about you? Are you mad because you're the ugly brother?" Kol practically fell on the floor at that comment. All of us seemed to think it was pretty funny, except mother dearest and her favorite kid.

"No offense, but this is sort of a family thing-" Finn tried to say.

"No offense, but shut the hell up." I shot back. "Families don't try and kill each other. Family is supposed to be about understanding and accepting one another. It's about being there even when that they're wrong. Your family is supposed to build you up, not break you down, not try and destroy you. Family isn't always your blood, it's the people you look to in times of need, for comfort, and for help. It's the people that distract their friends crazy witch mom from doing her weird ritual thing to kill them while her future brother in law and his brother - not particularly sure which is which at the moment - turns her other friends mom into a vampire so that the crazy witch mom doesn't have any power to draw from and therefore can't kill said person's best friends." All of a sudden Esther's face dropped, she knew she had lost. "I'm said person."

"No!" She exclaimed. "Sisters! Do not abandon me!"

The flames grew and I turned my back to them to keep from being burned. Then the flames died, and it was dark again. I faced the three brothers and we were all silent for a few seconds. I don't know exactly what came over me, but my eyes began to water, and I couldn't keep my tears at bay.

"Elijah!" I cried. "Klaus!"

They ran over and hugged me, letting me cry for a minute or two. I looked up and saw Kol staring at the circle where his brother and mother had been just minutes ago. My arms unwrapped themselves from the two and I ran over to Kol. I hugged him tightly, just as happy that he was alive as I was that Elijah and Klaus were.

"There now darling." He rubbed my back, albeit awkwardly. "We're all just fine."

 _Yeah._ I thought solemnly. _For now._


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello again! And thank you again for all the wonderful reviews! I love the love, so keep it coming :) xoxo**

 _i understand it now, why hurricanes are named after people_

"Don't take this personally," I mumbled into the pillow. "But I'm regretting not letting you all die." I was currently laying in my bed in the guest room that I claimed as mine at the Mikaelson residence. It was 5 in the morning. And the oh so lovely original family was surrounding my bed, bothering me and trying to wake me up.

"Oh, darling, don't lie to yourself," Kol laughed. "Get up, we're bored, more importantly I'm bored. We're gonna go find something to do."

"Why does it have to involve me? Take this time to do some family bonding or some shit like that." I groaned and rolled over and right into Bekah, who I hadn't noticed had laid down next to me.

"Family time includes you love, get up and get ready." Klaus yanked the blanket off me. There was a gust of cold, causing me to groan again.

"FINE." I yelled into the pillow and stood up on the bed, throwing my hair into a messy bun. I jumped a couple times before landing on my knees by the end of the bed right in front of Kol. I gave my best puppy dog face. "I don't wanna walk."

He rolled his eyes, but I caught the gleam of amusement in them. "C'mon darling." He turned around and let me climb on his back. As we all made our way down the stairs and to the kitchen I announced, fairly loudly, that I wanted french toast.

"How about you go get yourself ready while I make you some-" Elijah began.

"French toast?" The puppy dog face emerged once again.

"Yes Elle, if that's what you'd like." I gave him the biggest smile I could and nodded my head.

"Lets go Kol, back up the stairs."

"Alright darling, hold on tight." Not a moment later and we were back in my room and I was thrown on the bed lightly. I got up and started umping again - I couldn't help it, it's like a force of habit. "What do you feel like wearing?"

"Something blue!" I randomly yelled. "And pretty!"

"Well that's gonna be a problem considering you have no clothes here."

"Oh shit." I mumbled. I forgot that I had brought them on my New Orleans trip and left them at my real house to wash before bringing them back to the Mikaelson's. "Ok, this can be fixed! Bring me to…Klaus's room!" I hopped back onto Kol's back and within a second we were in Klaus's room. I ran into his closet and found what I was looking for, a dark blue flannel that reached a little passed my mid thigh. We made another stop by Bekah's room to grab me a pair of maroon knee high socks and gray boots. I used Bekah's make up and brushed my teeth before resuming my previous position on Kol's back.

Not gonna lie, I was getting use to it. It may not come of as me being flirty, because I act this way with a lot of people, but if you paid attention, I was acting slightly different toward Kol. At first, it was mostly because I wanted to make sure he fit into our group - mine, Bekah, Elijah, and Klaus's. I know Bekah sort of explained that he always felt like the black sheep of the family. I knew what that was like. I'd lived that, hell, I still was. But then I started thinking about how cute he was and stuff and I caught myself being more flirty than usual. Obviously, I've done nothing to stop myself. Secretly I'm hoping he notices; however, the whole happy homicidal maniac thing is kinda turning me off, so I'm also hoping he doesn't notice.

"I'm ready for my french toast!" I squealed.

—

My day with the Mikaelson's had been going pretty well so far. Kol and Klaus were bickering nonstop, while Elijah and Bekah ignored them and held conversation with each other. I was in between both conversations, wanting to talk to all of them.

My phone rang, on it's screen was a picture of Caroline.

Klaus cleared his throat. "Who's calling you?"

I winked and nudged him. "You're wifey." He attempted to deny my comment, but I just ignored him and answered my phone. "Hey Care!"

"No!" She screeched. "You've been back for how long and we have yet to hang out! I would say I'm pissed, but that doesn't even _begin_ to cover it!"

I covered my mouth, trying not to giggle at her insincere anger. "Sorry, my sister tried to take part in killing my best friends again, I've been pretty busy lately."

"You make it really hard to be mad at you." She laughed. "Me, you, Ryan Gosling, tonight."

"You had me at Gosling. Count me in, as long as Elena isn't there."

"You can't be mad at her forever No." Caroline sighed. "She was doing what she thought was best. She always will."

"She's the reason Bonnie's mom is a vampire, she's the reason Stefan's in a pissy ass mood, and she's the reason my best friends almost lost their lives. She can beg all she wants, it's gonna take more than an 'I'm sorry' this time." I rolled my eyes. The morning after all that stuff went down with Esther and Finn in the forest Elena tried to freak out on me when I came home. She went on and on about how dangerous it was for me to do something like that, until I called her out on her part in the entire thing. By the end of the argument, I had stormed out of the house and had been staying at the Mikaelson's. That was only two days ago.

"Ok, whatever, I don't wanna talk about it, all I want is to see you. So my house, 10 o'clock."

"You got it." I said. "See you tonight. Oh and Klaus says he loves you and hopes to see you later after…what was that Klaus?" I pretended to ask him. His eyes went wide and he tried to grab my phone. "After I fall asleep?" He glared at me. "You want to what her?! Caroline, I didn't know you were into being spanked, this is news to me." I could just practically _hear_ her rolling her eyes. "Klaus says not to roll your eyes, it makes him mad, _palm twitchingly_ mad."

"Noelle!" Caroline and Klaus both screamed at me at the same time. I hung up and started laughing. Kol got a kick out of it too it seemed, as he was bent over laughing.

"Why did you do that?" Klaus whined.

"Why? Did it make you mad?" I giggled.

"Palm twitchingly mad?" Kol added.

After a while Elijah and Klaus decided to make their way back to the house, saying they some stuff to do, and Bekah had planned lunch with the Mayor. So then it was just me and Kol.

"Well darling, where do you want go?"

—

"I didn't mean this literally Kol!" I smiled at him from the passengers seat.

"It won't be a long road trip darling, just a day long one, to somewhere out of that dreadful town." He smirked back at me. "I don't understand how you live there without going insane."

"I don't, why do you think I skipped town and went to New Orleans for my birthday?" My spontaneous New Orleans trip reminded me of the gift I'd given the siblings, and, instinctively, my eyes drifted to Kol's wrist, where the beaded bracelet I'd given him still rested. That made me smile, knowing he actually liked my gift enough to keep it on. "I want more than this town, more than it has to offer. I want to see the world, to travel. I've tried to get myself to do it a couple of times, but Elena would get mad. New Orleans was the first time I've ever gone against her. And even then, I did it to spite her because of what she did to Bekah."

"Why do you care so much about what your dumb sister thinks about what you want? It's what _you_ want. And if you want to go places, and experience things, she shouldn't be able to stop you. She isn't your mother."

"Well, yeah…but she's my sister." I tried.

"So?" He laughed sarcastically. "I never once let my siblings hold me back from doing what I wanted. They were always so caught up in trying to lay low and blend into little towns and what not. I tried it for a while. Couldn't bare it. So I left. Ventured on my own for a long time. I made my way across Europe."

"No way!" I continued starring at him in amazement. He'd lived so many years, seen so many things. Yeah, sure, he sort of missed a century, but still. "What's it like?"

He smiled at me, this time a real and genuine smile. I liked this Kol, he wasn't so defensive over his emotions. He was usually cocky and egotistical, but I could tell it was all a facade, no matter what he said. He was angry at the fact that he had been the odd one out of his siblings. He was sad that he couldn't conform with them. But this Kol, at this moment, was content. And I liked that. I like the way his voice carried his excitement and passion for music and art and people and culture. I loved the way his eyes got wide when he mentioned the tall buildings and gorgeous infrastructure. He even went as far as to tell me the story of how he'd friends with many of the renaissance artists, and even inspired Leonardo De Vinci to paint the Mona Lisa.

"Liar!" I gapped.

"I swear." He smiled. There it was. I kept him going with his stories, loving hearing them as much as he seemed to love telling them. And that's how we spent the rest of the drive. We stopped at a little diner about three towns away from Mystic Falls for a late lunch.

"Booth or table darling?" He asked.

"Doesn't matter." I shrugged. We sat down at a booth in the corner of the diner and placed our drink orders. "Hey, why do you do that? Call me darling, I mean. I kind of notice you do that to a lot of girls."

"Jealous, are we?" He winked at me, and I'm not gonna lie I swooned a little.

"Not jealous, just curious. I mean, all my friends call me either No, Elle, or Ellie. I was just wondering why you don't." I pointed out.

He narrowed his eyes a little. "Is that what we are? Friends?"

"Of course! You didn't catch on to that?"

He didn't talk for a couple minutes, processing what I had said. Has he never had a friend?

"Alright _Ellie_ , the choice is all yours, what do _you_ want to do you want to do before we're forced to go back to that dreadful town?" He sent me that signature Mikaelson smirk, and it made me smile.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 is here! I just want you all to know, I'm going to be changing the story line a little, not majorly, no deaths or anything, but I really don't think any of you will be mad about what I'll be doing. I'll give you a hint, it has something to do with Klaroline *wink wink*. Soooo enjoy! Remember to review! xoxo**

 _without beauty, love, or danger, it would almost be easy to live_

The next day I woke up in Caroline's room and for a couple minutes just stared up at the ceiling. I'd ignored Elena for so long that I hadn't realized so many things had been happening in Mystic Falls. Caroline had filled me in on everything. Alaric was being charged for homicide; I felt so guilty for not trying to help in any way. Apparently also the daylight ring he and Jeremy wore makes you go crazy, at least according to our ancestors it does. The more times you die with it on, the more detached you become from your sanity.

"What are you thinking about?" Caroline's voice interrupted my thoughts. She was laying on her floor next to me wear we had fallen asleep watching The Notebook.

"I think I'm gonna call Elena and meet up with Alaric later. I want to know how he's doing. And after everything that has happened, I really just want to see my family and make sure they're all ok."

"I'm glad." Care smiled. She sat up and crossed her legs before looking at me seriously. I mimicked her motions. "I need to talk to you about something. Technically about someone. And you have to be serious about this, it's a real issue, and I really don't know how to deal with it so-"

"Caroline get to that point." I laughed.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I don't know how I feel about Tyler anymore." Ok, not what I was looking for, but I'll take it, it's a step in the right direction.

"What!?" I said, shocked. "What happened? What made you realize it?"

My phone rang next to me. It was Elena. "I have to answer this and probably go meet up with her in a couple minutes. This conversation is definitely not over, we'll talk later, go it?" She nodded her head and gave me a soft smile before hugging me and saying goodbye.

I answered my phone on the way down the stairs. I began to put on my black Nike's when I spoke to my sister for the first time in days. "Hey, how's Alaric?" I could tell it wasn't the first thing she wanted to talk about but there's no way she'd avoid the question.

"He's doing fine, I'm going to the hospital now, Meredith is gonna do an MRI scan on him, see what comes up, if anything is you know…wrong." She explained. "Listen, I know this is the last thing you probably want to discuss right now, but we need to have this conversation. In person. We can have lunch and talk it over."

I sighed. "Fine. I'll meet you at the hospital." I said goodbye and stood up, ready to face the day. Sort of.

—

When I got to the hospital the scan was already over. I ran into the room and right into Alaric's arms. "Hey Ric! I'm so sorry I haven't been around, I didn't even know this was going on." I repeated my apology over and over again until Alaric put a hand over my mouth and smirked.

"It's fine No, really." He assured me. "Like I told Elena, and everyone else, I didn't do it." I turned to face Elena, greeting her with a brief nod. Alaric's gaze focused in on the Gilbert ring on the counter. "Or I did, and I've gone insane. Just like your guys' ancestor who…wore their ring."

"Look, I'm gonna call Bonnie." Elena said. "The rings were made by a Bennett witch, so maybe a witch can reverse the damage."

Ric was silent for a moment. He seemed to have made up his mind about what he was going to do next. He slid the ring over toward Elena. "Take it." He insisted. "I don't want it anymore."

My phone rang just as Damon stepped into the room. "Excuse me." I mumbled. "Hey Dames." I kissed his cheek, which made him smile, and exited the room to take the call. Surprisingly, it was Kol.

"Kol! Hey!" I practically shouted as I answered my phone. "What's up?"

"Hello Ellie. Nothing much. I'm fine. How are you? Good to hear, glad you're doing well. Listen here's the thing," he spoke quickly and promptly. "We, as in me and my family, have a bit of a problem. How fast can you be at our home?"

I was a little disappointed that he had called for some reason other than just wanting to talk to me. "Well, I'm kind of in the middle of something right now. And I have a lunch date planned with-"

"A lunch date?" He repeated, sounding a bit angry. Maybe his siblings were bothering him while he was on the phone. "Well then. Why don't you just finish up with that and then meet up with us whenever it's convenient for you. There should at least be one of us home whenever you decide to show up."

"Um…ok. I'll text you or Bekah or someone when I'm on my way."

"Good." He stated bluntly. "See you then."

"See you-" He hung up "…later." _What the hell was that?_

Elena and Damon were walking out into the hallway as I put my phone back into my pocket. "We leaving?" I asked. Elena didn't answer me and Damon just shrugged. I followed them down out of the building and into the parking lot.

"Don't worry about him." Damon tried to tell her. "I'll take him out for chicken soup, get him a martini, make sure he doesn't kill anybody."

"What is wrong with you?!" Elena used her 'mom' voice. "How could you just go out feeding with Stefan like some vampire pub crawl?"

Apparently I had missed a lot more than I thought I did. What the hell was happening between the Salvatore brothers now?

" _Alright,_ I thought we were talking about Alaric, but of course we're talking about Stefan." Damon rolled his eyes. _Here we go_ , I thought. I really didn't care about what they were talking about so I tuned them out and climbed into the passenger side of Elena's car. They spoke for a few more seconds until Elena got into the car herself and we drove off.

For the first few minutes it was completely silent. _Woah this is awkward_.

Finally, Elena broke the unbearable silence. "I'm sorry. For everything. For keeping what was going on with Esther a secret, and for not talking to you these last few days, and for trying to control what you've been doing and who you hang out with. I know I keep apologizing, and promising things and then breaking those promises. I'm just really sorry Noelle. I haven't been a good sister lately. And with everything that's happening with Alaric right now, we need each other. You, me, all of us, we need each other, this family is going through so much right now."

"I know." I agreed. "I'm sorry too. To be honest, it was more my fault that you haven't talked to me these last couple days, I've been deliberately ignoring you because of what happened. Rightly so. But I accept your apology. Again. But Elena, you can't keep doing these things and then expecting me to be ok with it, these are my friends, I don't see them in the same way all of you do."

"I want to understand No." She sighed. "But honestly, I can't bring myself to. I get maybe Elijah, I mean he's helped us out a few times, he's been on our side, but the rest of them. I mean Rebekah? Klaus? _Kol?_ Speaking of Kol, what the hell is that about?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"Caroline told me you and Kol Mikaelson spent the afternoon together yesterday. Noelle, do you know how dangerous that is?"

"Ok wait, let me get this straight." I laughed sarcastically. "You apologize for trying to control my social life, and yet here you are trying to yet again control my social life. I'm confused, how does that make sense?"

She turned into the parking lot of the Mystic Grill and got out of the car. I slammed the door shut, making it very clear just how annoyed I was. "Noelle, I'm not trying to control your social life, ok? I'm just trying to make you realize that who you're hanging out with, these people you call your friends, are extremely dangerous."

"They would never hurt me, stop acting like such a drama queen Elena."

"A drama queen? Are you kidding me?"

"No, I'm not!" I was practically yelling at this point. "You do realize your boyfriend, or exboyfriend, or new boyfriends brother, or whatever the hell which brother is which to you right now, is just as dangerous to you as any of the Mikaelson's are to me, right? Look around you sis, we live in a town crawling with vampires and werewolves and witches and who knows what the hell other freakish mythical creatures that technically should not exist! And yeah, I did hang out with Kol yesterday, you know, the crazy psychopathic brother, and probably the most dangerous, and I had _a ton_ of fun, something I haven't had in a really long time! You know what we did yesterday?! He took me to a fair and won me a stuffed gorilla, which is now buckled in the passenger seat of my car; he's cute as hell and his name is Stefan Jr.! And guess what! For the entire time I was with Kol, I forgot all about the stupid supernatural drama that was going on here! Do you know how long it's been since I've been able to do that, to forgot all of this shit and just have one normal day!? God, Elena! You're so caught up in yourself and your petty love triangle problems that you refuse to step outside of your little box of troubles and realize that every else is trying to deal with their own shit also! So before you try and sit here and get all on me about my issues, figure out how to deal with yours first." I turned around and began walking back toward the hospital where my car was.

"What, No!" I could hear Elena's boots on the pavement behind me, they were loud and quick in pace. "No, I'm sorry. You're right ok. I'm just frustrated right now with everything that's being thrown in our faces. It seems like we work out one problem just as two more pop up. I worry about you, I'll always worry about you, you're my sister. I'm so sorry that you feel like you can't even live a normal life, and I can't help but feel partially responsible for that. All I want is for us - me, you, Jeremy, and Alaric - to just be a family without something coming into the picture and ruining it. I love you No. We've been fighting so much lately, and it's my fault. I can't even make you any promises anymore without breaking them."

I faced my twin sister. "I get it. Ok, Elena, I get it. We are a family. And I love you too. Right now I just really need some time to myself, and I think you do also. I'll be home later maybe, I'll text Alaric and let him know."

—

The walk back to my car was dreadful. It took me twenty minutes, luckily I was wearing my Nike's and not heels or boots like I usually do, or I most likely never would've made it. I slipped into my car and rested my head back against the headrest. I peeked over at Stefan Jr. sitting in my passenger seat, right where I left him. "What are you looking at? I didn't do anything wrong. Everything I said was true, and she needed to understand finally. Maybe, I guess, I could've ended the conversation on a lighter note, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that I got my point across. Oh great now look at me, I'm talking to myself. I'm pathetic. I'll text her later and apologize. Or maybe I'll just go home and do it in person after I see the original fam. Why do I have to have such a guilty conscience?"

I sent a quick text to Klaus, letting him know I was on my way to the house. He texted me back, telling me to drive safe and that he'd leave the door unlocked for me.

When I got there it was pretty quiet, which was weird. Usually Klaus was playing music, or Elijah was lecturing one of his siblings, or Rebekah and Kol, or Kol and Klaus, or Kol and anyone honestly, were bickering and fighting. But instead, there was nothing, even when I walked into the house, there was no noise at all. That's how I knew something was wrong.

"In the dining room Ellie!" I heard Rebekah yell.

When I entered the room I noticed that all of the siblings, except Kol, were present. Elijah was standing, while Klaus and Bekah were sitting across from one another. "What's going on?" I asked in a weary tone.

"We're just waiting on Kol, then we'll explain." Bekah pushed out the chair next to her and I sat down.

"I'm right here." Kol entered the dining room a second later and stopped to stand just behind my chair. "So. Who wants to be the one to break the news?"

I held a confused look on my face. No one said a word. I was going to ask what Kol was talking about when Elijah spoke up. "Back when we were first created, our mother had called upon a White Oak Tree, an eternal object of Nature, in her spell she used to turn us into vampires. It's where we drew our immortality from. Unfortunately, nature demands that there be consequences for all actions."

"Meaning?"

Kol took over. "The wood from that tree was the only thing that could kill us. Obviously, we couldn't take our chances on anyone finding out. So we burned it down."

"However, we think a sapling or something might've fallen off, and after we left, the natives planted a new one." Klaus continued. "It was cut down only a little over a century ago."

"So what's the problem?" I asked. "All we have to do is find out who cut it down, which is probably in the town's archives, and find out what it was used for."

"That's the problem." Bekah spoke. "We know who cut it down. It was one of the founding families."

"Well perfect! You can go find them and compel them to tell you what they might know. A lot of people are really into their family history in this town."

"We can't." Kol huffed, clearly irritated with the situation.

"I'm confused now."

Rebekah took a deep breath. "The family that did all the lodging during that period of time were the Salvatore's. And there's now in hell we can let them know of what we're planning on doing."


End file.
